The Economics of Capital Punishment - Part II: "Here is Gary Becker's response to Posner's comments on capital punishment, also appearing in the Becker-Posner blog and in the latest issue of Economists' Voice:



Becker-Posner blog: More on the Economics of Capital Punishment-Becker: Posner has a good discussion of the various issues... I will concentrate my comments on deterrence, which is really the crucial issue... I support the use of capital punishment for persons convicted of murder because, and only because, I believe it deters murders. If I did not believe that, I would be opposed because revenge and the other possible motives that are mentioned and discussed by Posner, should not be a basis for public policy.



As Posner indicates, serious empirical research on capital punishment began with Isaac Ehrlich's pioneering paper. Subsequent studies have sometimes found much weaker effects than he found, while others, including a recent one cited by Posner, found a much larger effect... The available data are quite limited, however, so one should not base any conclusions solely on the econometric evidence, although I believe that the preponderance of evidence does indicate that capital punishment deters.

Of course, public policy on punishments cannot wait until the evidence is perfect. Even with the limited quantitative evidence available, there are "